Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Work in Progress Wednesday #14

Oh crap.

Those are the words that have been following me for the past few days as Wednesday has loomed closer, and my progress has remained stuck at nothing accomplished.

If I think for too long and too hard about how much I want to get done (more blog posts, rewrites, a breakdown of the rules of the world in my novel so I stop contradicting myself) I get very discouraged and then very tired. Then I go take a nap, which as you might imagine, doesn't help much at all.


Even though I've already taken my nap for today, I am still tired so instead of focusing on the negatives of what I haven't done and what needs to be done, I am now going to discuss what I actually have accomplished.


These are not writing related things, but rather life related things. However, as somehow and somewhere down the road my life things often turn into my writing things, I'm not going to call it a complete loss.

The first accomplishment is one that I discussed working towards last week - making a Cookie Monster cake for my son's second birthday.

Taking the advice of some of my commenters, I ended up going to Michael's for the food coloring, and while I was there I also found some "edible" glitter that worked great for giving Cookie Monster a furry look (Note to anyone thinking of using this - "edible" does not mean the same thing as "tastes great". I was expecting the glitter to taste like sugary sprinkles, but no - they just kind of tasted like something I wanted to scrape off my frosting.).

My inspiration for the design came from this Coolest Cake's site. Basically, all I did was make two cupcakes and then two 9-inch rounds cakes from this Too Much Chocolate Cake recipe (subbing applesauce for the oil cause I'm just all health conscious like that. Yeah, it's kind of like going to McDonald's and getting a Diet Coke with your Supersized meal. It's meaningless, but it makes you feel better.) and topping it with Best Buttercream Frosting in shades of blue, white, and black.

The results are below.


And then there was the child's reaction to having Mommy say, "Jamie, look it's Cookie Monster. Cookie Monster, Jamie. It's your friend, Cookie Monster."

And then I put a flaming candle into his face, before carving it into slices.


Yeah, that's what we call the Boo Boo face. I think it's fair to say that he was a little overwhelmed. Seconds after that picture was snapped the tears started for real (you know those big fat round ones that just roll down their little cheeks) and it wasn't until the next night that Jamie ended up actually eating any of his Cookie Monster birthday cake.

So, there was that.

My other big accomplishment is actually a work in progress that I've been secretly working on for several weeks now.

For anyone who hasn't seen one of these fuzzy grey pictures before that's an ultrasound of my Jamie's soon-to-be baby brother or sister at about 9 1/2 weeks. He/She is still in the fuzzy blob stage, but those with sharp eyes might be able to make out the head, an arm, and the body.

Anyway, my due date is December 11th, and I am working through the last few weeks of my first trimester which has been Tough. Yes, with a capital T. Most days at just about the point where I have time to sit in front of the computer to get some work done, I get this feeling like I've been hit with a horse tranquilizer dart. My brain grows fuzzy making thinking impossible, which is just as well because the focus needed to read from a computer screen causes a pounding headache after thirty minutes anyway. Thus the napping mentioned above.

So, those are my not really writing related works in progress for this week. Next week though I am determined to get something related to my writing WIP accomplished even if I have to drink a gallon of coffee to make it happen.

Okay, so please cheer me up by telling me about your progress so that I know the whole world has not come to a grinding halt. I hope you all have come closer to meeting your writing related goals than I have. And if you have any tips or ideas or how to work through unbearable tiredness and other pregnancy related maladies bring it on!

And if you want to participate in WIP Wednesday, simply post your own WIP Wednesday entry on your blog and leave a link to it in the comments below. Or if you don't have a blog, feel free to report your progress directly into the comments box.

For more detailed information concerning what all this nonsense is about please consult the original Work in Progress Wednesday posting.

Feel free to also make use of the lovely little WIP Wednesday logo as well!